2046 - Preview

ONE of the highlights of the London Film Festival - for audiences
and critics alike - was 2046, the eagerly-anticipated follow-up
to In The Mood For Love, from director, Wong Kar-Wai.

The film is set some time after the events of In the Mood for
Love, as Tony Leung's Chow Mo-Wan returns to Hong Kong to continue
writing columns and serials for the newspapers.

Lodging in a cheap hotel, in Wanchai, he decides to reinvent
himself as a heartless playboy and begins a relationship with
his next-door neighbour, in Room 2046, the beautiful Miss Bai
(Zhang Ziyi, of House
of Flying Daggers fame).

But when their physical relationship threatens to become serious,
Chow pushes her away.

In the meantime, Chow continues to write his most popular serial
- a story called 2046, in which travellers take endless train
journeys to a mysterious destination where they can recapture
their lost memories.

The progress of the book is, however,
hindered by Chow's haunted memories from his years in Singapore.

2046 was described as a visually striking 'an anthology of Wong's
obsessions in their purest and most piercing form' when it played
at the London Film Festival and was immediately seized upon as
a critics' favourite.

It is released in the UK in January and could well set the standard
to beat for foreign language films in 2005.

Commenting on the inspirations behind the film, the director,
himself, states: "There is a need in all of us to have a
place to hide or store certain memories, thoughts, impulses, hopes
and dreams.

"These are part of our lives that we can’t resolve
or best not act upon but at the same time we are afraid to jettison
them.

"For some, this is a physical place; for others, it is a
mental space, and for a few it is neither. 2046 is a project that
began some time ago. The journey to complete the film has been
eventful.

"It has taken a long time to get there. Like the memory
we treasure, it is difficult to leave behind."